Thursday, September 19, 2013

Review paper finds biosphere productivity of the Arctic is thriving due to CO2 fertilization and warming

A new review paper by SPPI and CO2 Science finds "Land-based plants of the Arctic and near-Arctic regions of North America are not headed down the road of environmental degradation and toward extinction, but are thriving, thanks in large part to the ongoing rise in the atmosphere's CO2 concentration and global warming."

How does the terrestrial vegetation of Earth's natural ecosystems respond to increases in atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentration? We here consider this question as it applies to Arctic and near-Arctic locations in North America.

It is clear that the productivity of vegetation in the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere has been increasing with time.

These several observations would seem to suggest that the entire Circumpolar Arctic is in the process of returning to what could be called the good old days, when that part of the planet was a whole lot greener - and a whole lot livelier - than it has been for a long, long time.

It would appear that many of Earth's higher-latitude terrestrial ecosystems might well be able to sustain considerably greater primary productivity, as well as much larger numbers of higher trophic-level consumers, in a CO2-enriched and warmer world.

These data confirm the findings of prior satellite assessments of the vegetative transformation of Earth's northernmost collection of landscapes over the past three decades, thanks not only to global warming, but also to the aerial fertilization and water-use efficiency-enhancing effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment.

Taken together, the results of the studies reviewed in this summary paint a picture of the planet's terrestrial vegetation that is just the opposite of what is promulgated by the world's climate alarmists. Land-based plants of the Arctic and near-Arctic regions of North America are not headed down the road of environmental degradation and toward extinction, but are thriving, thanks in large part to the ongoing rise in the atmosphere's CO2 concentration and global warming.